raingatefandomcom-20200215-history
Sentinel's Gate
Sentinel's Gate—The Sentinel's Gate is a collection of unique script engines which work cohesively to establish a barrier between the material plane and all others within its designated area of responsibility. The Sentinel's Gate was designed primarily to defend against the potential of extra-dimensional invasion though also protects against unauthorized translocation. While made of many parts the gate functions as a single unit – using arcane energy to fortify dimensional bonds. The gate's script engines—known as Sentinels—are constructed in various locations and establish the area of effect for the gate. As a standard rule of thumb, the Sentinel's Gate requires one Sentinel for every ten square miles, however, this quantity increases drastically when exceeding fifty square miles. Sentinels may be provided more energy to expand their area of coverage or to compensate for sentinels which are damaged, or destroyed though proves highly inefficient for long periods of time, Though not required, the Sentinel's gate is far more stable when all engines are arranged in a circular geometry; other geometries can be used, however these may cause weak spots within the field which – if discovered – can be exploited. The Sentinel's Gate will defend against any and all translocations and cross dimensional travel so long as its divided energy can withstand the attempt; the larger the area the thinner the gate's energy is spread, thus, a larger number of sentinels may be required, Each Sentinel should be constructed in a secure, well-defended, and/or well-concealed location where it will not come under easy attack; the fall of a single sentinel will place that much more strain on the gate as a whole and may even be enough to destabilize it. This is not to say that sentinels are not capable of defending themselves; each sentinel is designed as a conical pillar which gradually decreases in width up to its' highest point. Each pillar is constructed of reinforced Titansteel Arconem shielded by several UHCASGs which are powered by an internal self-sustaining supply. Sentinels can be powered in a multitude of ways including Leyline Taps, Power Relays, Crystal Conduits, M/AC generators, CNR-R, ENVOY Relay, or even a Starcore if need-be. Most sentinels are powered by a LLT if provided or by a CNR-R with an array of PMCs and M/AC generators as back-up. Each sentinel is provided with four primary script engines each working in unison often at maximum or near-maximum output as determined by the user's needs. All sentinels are synchronized through the use of an ENVOY relay (used primarily for low-frequency communications) and can be controlled locally or remotely via the CDLS system. Each sentinel contains a local Archive, Summoning Index, and – in some cases – an emergency transport gate used either for evacuation or for supplying reinforcements. The primary complex of each sentinel is below ground level with only (5-6) of its (12) floors exposed; however, this does not prevent potential subterranean attacks. A sentinel's summoning index is usually supplied with enough arcane constructs, weapons, and equipment to defend against a large-scale attack for a short period of time during which all surplus power will be focused on external and internal defenses though only if all four of its' main engines are supplied. A sentinel can be deemed active through remote indications or by the bright beam of blue-white light radiating from the peak of the structure; this beam is the sentinel's method of emitting its' fortifying energy which is carefully directed and distributed by the gate's main system. Operator interfacing and authorization is required for most actions taken by the Sentinel's Gate, however, the system itself can be deemed automatic as once it is active and all parameters have been established it will remain selfsustaining for as long as all components remain operable. Access in an out of an area under the protection of the Sentinel's Gate can and will be granted to any device and/or spell with appropriate authorization; these must be detected, recognized, and approved by the system prior to an attempt – requests for access can be made by authorized devices via CDLS which are then checked against a preapproved registry; requests which do not match the registry must then be forwarded to a system controller for approval. Once approved the device/caster will receive a notification of clearance and then be allowed to proceed. - One of many threats to the security of the Sentinel's Gate is the potential for script-hacking which can be used either to disrupt the function of the gate or to grant a user unpermitted access in and out of a protected area. The potential for script-hacking is limited by the use of the Cipher language in addition to several'highly-aggressive security protocols. Other threats include the potential for a Force Breech through which a device, spell, and/or entity attempts to break through the gate's defenses through pure overpowering force. While extremely difficult the potential for a Force Breech increases with the size of area under a gate's protection and with the existence of weak spots. This potential is mitigated with the use of a strong geometric layout and the use of large reserve power supplies. One of the most effective methods of employing the Sentinel's Gate involves the use of recurring and expanding rings of sentinels which creates self-sustained yet overlapping areas; this layout maximizes power conservation, provides a multitude of back-up engines, and allows the system to evaluate areas of potential weakness and reinforce those areas as required, additionally the loss of one or even several sentinels will not cause destabilization. When destabilization does occur-granted the majority of others remain – only the outer-most area will be affected. This method can be used for a variety of geometric layouts. The Sentinel's Gate – while powerful – is extremely energy and resources consuming, due to the size and complexity of each structure, the sentinels are not currently AXIS compatible, nor can they be accurately and efficiently translocated from another location, thus each structure must be constructed individually.